The latest Defence Review had this line in it:

We will accordingly … reduce the role of the VC10 transport/tanker aircraft to undertake air-to-air refuelling only, with the target of withdrawing it by 2013 as A330 enters service;

That’s the last official statement as far as I know. There are 12 airframes still in service but three of those will be retired pretty soon.

The DBAF B-25 is at EHGR and has been re-registered as PH-XXV sometime in 2010. Officially she is now part of the SKHV (http://www.skhv.nl) or ‘Royal Dutch Airforce Historical Flight’.

This one:

North American P51 Mustang Excalibur III in the National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Washington DC. Charles F. Blair jr. purchased the P-51 Mustang “Blaze of Noon” that Paul Mantz flown to wins in the Bendix Trophy air races in 1946 and 1947. Rechristened “Excalibur III”, Blair began setting records. On 31 January 1951 Blair flew non stop from New York to London to test the jet stream, travelling 3,478 miles (5,597 km) at an average speed of 446 miles per hour (718 km/h) in seven hours and 48 minutes setting a record for a piston engine plane. On 29 May of the same year he flew from Bardufoss, Norway to Fairbanks, Alaska flying 3260 non stop miles across the North Pole.

The one on the Queen’s building was a reproduction. It would be an interesting question whether this was based on an actual aircraft?

Wiki page about Charles Blair: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_F._Blair,_Jr.
NASM page about Excalibur III: http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19530088000

Am Triebwerk befanden sich die hölzernen Reste der starren Luftschraube, wie sie bei frühen Varianten der Bf 108B eingesetzt wurde. Auf diese Einordnung deutet auch der noch gut erhaltene dunkelblaue Lack hin, der bis etwa 1940 bei Messerschmitt verwendet worden war, aber auch am Wrack vorgefundene Bauteilschilder, die auf Produktion der Maschine im Jahr 1939 in Regensburg hinweisen.

This translates (roughly) as:
The wooden remains of a fixed pitch propellor, as used on early Bf108B variants, were found attached to the engine. This classification is substantiated by the well preserved dark blue paint, which was used by Messerschmitt until 1940 (approx.), but also by subpart dataplates which point to an aircraft built in Regensburg in 1939.
My translation is slightly different from Google, I wasn’t sure that the fact that they do have dataplates for several components was clear enough. Apparently these do not point to a specific machine.

eines an das Bordnetz angeschlossenen Reflexvisiers Revi C 12D

What they found was: a reflection gunsight Revi C 12D which was connected to the electrical system inside the cabin area. If the sight was carried only as a spare (cargo) then hooking it up to the electrics would not make sense.

I think the Collins Foundation got theirs up in the air last year.

For the story of how two Vikings managed to survive until today: http://www.vc10.net/History/vikings_of_soesterberg.html

I’ve created that page a few years ago to document G-AGRU’s history as a restaurant, it includes some nice photos as well.

I’ll dig out some other shots of Varsitys and such, I’m sure I can find a few in my archives. For a start here’s the Linkoping Varsity seen two weeks ago:

Interesting video (although a shame about the airframe). I’ve got a feeling that it was overrotated, the pilot tried to get it off the ground at too high an AOA with the wings in a semi-stalled state.

Anyhow, glad that the pilots got out safely. Airplanes can be rebuilt.